Tag: UFC 126

If you’re not already pumped for UFC 126, there isn’t much we (or modern medicine) can do for you at this point. The card is stacked, the matchups are stellar and the UFC middleweight champion showed up at the weigh-in looking like he just stepped out of the orgy scene in “Eyes Wide Shut” and damn near started a brawl. What more do you want? Fine, we’ve got a couple more tidbits for you, but after this we’re done until tonight’s live blog and tomorrow’s aftermath retrospectives.

First, some interesting stuff came out of ESPN’s MMA Live weigh-in special (video at top) on Friday. Most notably, Franklin McNeil makes the wild, barely attributable claim that estranged trainer Shawn Tompkins has been leaking secrets to Anderson Silva’s camp since splitting with Vitor Belfort a couple weeks ago. Basically McNeil quotes “several” anonymous sources telling him hazy things about Tompkins “being in contact with Team Silva” and he “assumes” that it means Tompkins is stabbing Vitor in the back. Dude, and people call us rumor mongers? He also refers to Shawn Tompkins as “Thompson” at least once here, but that’s really beside the point.

Also, we’ve got quotes from Jon Jones that make him sound either totally prepared for Ryan Bader, or not prepared at all. It’s all after the jump …

("The Spider" is Angling for a role in the next "Blade" movie. Image courtesy UFC/Getty Images)

Just a reminder that you can watch the UFC 126 weigh-ins live right here a bit later than usual at 7:00 pm ET.

There’s a pretty good chance that Anderson will be willing Vitor’s head to explode with his ice cold death stare, so it’s probably worth tuning in to to see if any altercations go down ahead of their potentially epic fight tomorrow night.

Fresh off the heels of their translator debacle, the folks at Zuffa have put someone with no experience and arguably no talent at the helm of their production: you. Last night via Twitter, Dana White announced the launch of the all-new UFC.tv, a wholly interactive alternative to the standard pay-per-view experience.

Online viewers are able to switch between six live camera angles at any time, which will prove pivotal should Anderson Silva decide to unveil his latest dance moves once again. Advanced features like picture-in-picture and the option to watch up to four angles at once let you customize how the action is presented. Beyond the ability to listen en Español, those who grow tired of hearing Goldie and Rogan’s banter can change the sound over to either fighter’s corner. Similar to the “mic’d up” feature used sparingly in early UFC events, you’ll get to listen first-hand to the pearls of wisdom coming from coaches and cornermen, which is actually a pretty cool feature so long as it isn’t Nam Phan dispensing the advice.

Despite not having a special guest on this week’s episode, we still put out a well-rounded show featuring Ben, Mike and Chad’s thoughts on last weekend’s Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Cyborg show, breakdowns and predictions for Saturday night’s UFC 126 card and our take on the week’s top headlines.

In case you missed it at Wednesday’s press conference, here’s video of the rather intense staredown between UFC 126 main eventers Anderson Silva and Vitor Belfort. Silva claims there’s nothing personal about Saturday’s match with "The Phenom," although Silva was reportedly upset that Belfort accepted the fight in the first place, considering they were former training partners. Weigh-ins for UFC 126 go down tonight at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas at 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT, so brace yourself for more uncomfortable closeness between the two Brazilian stars.

After the jump: Belfort tells his hero Ariel Helwani that Anderson’s attitude is just giving him more motivation for the fight.

The best part of Dana White’s most recent video blog was getting to re-watch the UFC’s new Portuguese translator fail miserably at his job and basically get shit-canned on the spot by the company’s president within a few minutes of starting his new role with Zuffa at yesterday’s UFC 126 press conference. Seriously, we figured it was going to be tough for anyone to beat James Toney’s mark of 3:19, but this dude did it, and did it in style.

First the guy finishes one of his suspiciously brief translations of a long-winded response by Anderson Silva with, "That’s the essence of [what he said]," then he admitted that he wasn’t paying attention to one of the Brazilian reporter’s questions, which is odd considering it’s, I don’t know….HIS JOB to translate the questions and answers for the press conference.

White didn’t pull any punches with the disinterested translator who was hired in response to criticism that the UFC’s former translator, Ed Soares, was guilty of sugar coating and sometimes purposely mistranslating some of the less complimentary statements his fighters like Silva and Junior dos Santos made during post-fight interviews. When his latest hire screwed up, White snapped and told the guy, who seemed out of place in a room full of fight fans and reporters (to say the least) to hand the microphone to Soares.

Note to future applicants: Wait until your probation period is up before getting fired. That way you can at least walk away with benefits and a 401K. This dude barely had UFC entered as his employer on Facebook and now he has to explain to all the people in his book club and birdwatching society that he is unemployed again.

You get the impression that Dana White still wakes up screaming about Abu Dhabi. Clearly, though White is holding white-knuckle tight to his belief that Anderson Silva is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, “The Spider” hasn’t totally worked his way out of the boss’ doghouse after that debacle against Demian Maia … and Thales Leites before that … and Patrick Cote before that. For that reason, White tells USA Today’s Sergio Non this week that he’s taking an “expect the best, prepare for the worst” approach to Silva’s middleweight title defense against Vitor Belfort this Saturday at UFC 126.

Check it out after the jump, where we’ve taken the liberty of changing all of White’s swears back to the words he intended since – you know – this isn’t an edited-for-television movie and none of us are six years old. And dear God, if you are six years old, log off at once. Where are your parents?

(Click the image above to watch some Yamamoto vs. Johnson video hype courtesy of the UFC’s Facebook page. Kid describes his UFC debut as both "cool" and "fun." What can we say, the dude knows how to cut a promo.)

Just like they did with the ‘Fight for the Troops 2′ prelims, the UFC has responded to popular demand by hooking fans up with an additional UFC 126 preliminary bout on their Facebook page this Saturday. The bantamweight scrap between Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto and Demetrious "Mighty Mouse" Johnson will air live at 8:25 p.m. ET / 5:25 p.m. PT at Facebook.com/UFC. (Just click on the "Live Video" tab.) UFC prez Dana White will also be hosting a chat on the page starting at 8 p.m.

After the Kid vs. Mouse appetizer, Spike TV will air two more crowd-pleasing preliminary matches (Michihiro Omigawa vs. Chad Mendes, Donald Cerrone vs. Paul Kelly) at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT, leading into the ‘Silva vs. Belfort’ pay-per-view broadcast. Be sure to come back to CagePotato.com for live results all night. S’gonna be a good one…

Super Bowl weekend. For America’s degenerate gamblers it’s like Christmas, St. Patrick’s Day and the Day of Eternal Judgment all rolled into one. The so-called experts estimate that over $100 million wordwide could change hands in bets on the Super Bowl this year. Slightly less than that will probably be wagered on Saturday night’s UFC 126, but as long as some of it winds up in your pocket, who’s complaining? To help you in that quest for the rich stuff, the Gambling Addiction Enabler is back.

See below for fight odds as of this writing (they appear to be changing pretty fast, more evidence that there are lot of bored gamblers playing out the string until Sunday’s kickoff). An explanation of what it all means is right here, though if you need that right now might not be the best time to jump into this thing with both feet. For the rest of you, let’s start earning, shall we?